Oshun

9x12 Oil on Canvas, wired to hang. 

While living in the Gulf Coast I spent a lot of time exploring New Orleans cemeteries. Walking through these admiring the beautiful stone work of the crypts,with their mortar grey and moss green all harmoniously contrasting, I was stopped short by my first encounter with a Santeria altar. Swatches of vibrant color and statues of vivid Orishas were illuminated with devotional votive candles and gifted with offerings of money, tobacco, and alcohol. They seemed so beautifully incongruous with the somber palette of the rest of the undecorated crypts.  I sought out as much local information as I could with my non-reaident status and discovered a fascinating religion with a multitude of branches in America.  Oshun is one of the most popular Orishas in Santeria, sacred to love, femininity and water among other pleasing characteristics.